Ezekiel Emanuel, a bioethicist with the National Institutes of Health and brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, put into perspective the more than $2 trillion spent on healthcare in the U.S. every year.

"People don't have any idea of what a trillion is," said Emanuel, pointing out that healthcare's steady increase will theoretically consume the entire economy one day.

He gave a shocking math lesson:

How long ago was a million seconds?

Less than two weeks ago.

How long ago was a billion seconds?

About the time when President Richard Nixon resigned from office in 1974.

How long ago was a trillion seconds?

30,000 B.C., which was 15,000 years before the first human stepped foot on North America.